During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo of The Sportster, WWE NXT Superstar Franky Monet commented on joining the NXT women’s division and why it’s validation for her, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On her reaction to getting the offer from WWE: “There was a lot of silence on my end because I was like ‘this isn’t really happening, are they really calling me? Is this really real or is someone prank calling me?’ {laughs}. I always go the worst-case scenario, this is just kinda what we’ve been taught, to never get excited until something is like there and I think that I just didn’t allow myself to be fully excited about this until I was walking into the Performance Center, and I was shaking Triple H’s hand, wearing the shirt, doing the stuff. That was when I think it really really set in. Because obviously, the process is a long one, there’s obviously so many steps that go into it. I just tried to contain myself till it was actually happening and then when it did I was like, ‘Oh no this is real.’”
On how joining the NXT women’s division was validation for her: “For me personally, it’s validation, validating all these years of struggling and being poor and not knowing when the next show is gonna be or how I am gonna get there. Or the 17 hours on a bus from Laredo, Mexico to Mexico City over and over again. All that work is validated by the fact that I am in this position with these absolutely amazing talented women from all over the world.”
On changing her ring name: “Franky is just a different evolution or a different chapter within my professional wrestling book, of my life basically. So she’s just an elevated version of who Taya Valkyrie was. I get inspired by a lot of music artists and movies and television. So I think I take little bits of all these people that I like and enjoy watching and just kinda mash it into one. There’s a lot of Lady Gaga in Franky Monet. There’s a little bit of Erika Jayne from the Housewives, there’s a little bit of Marilyn Monroe, so there’s just many different iconic blondes.{laughs} People that I think are really cool or interesting or maybe have strange quirks that piss people off or make them happy and I’ve kinda smushed them all together and made this Franky Monet that you see before you every Tuesday night on NXT.”